Class sizes again frustrate North Clackamas School Board members

More than 45 students jam into a math class at Happy Valley Middle School, leaving little time for individual attention. This year, a math teacher at the school has three classes with 46 students in each.Faith Cathcart/The Oregonian

Frustration over class sizes in the North Clackamas School District has again come to the forefront, with school board members expressing sorrow, anger and even nausea after looking at the district’s class size report for the school year.

At Thursday’s board meeting, where administrators presented the annual report, board member Trisha Claxton singled out Happy Valley Middle School’s algebra classes as particularly shocking. A math teacher there has 46 students in each of the three algebra classes she teaches. “It honestly makes you want to vomit,” she said. “Math teachers shouldn't have to do that, and the kids shouldn't have to put up with it.”

Both the middle schools and high schools this year average 32 students in core classes -- a number Cindy Quintanilla, executive director of secondary programs, said she’s happy with given the circumstances. Like school districts across the state, the North Clackamas School District has faced stagnant state funding coupled with rising costs in the past few years, resulting in a cuts to staff, closed schools and fewer school days.

The change in schedule for middle schools this year has helped alleviate some of the effects of high class sizes. Now, students have six hour-long classes rather than seven 45-minute classes, and teachers are shouldering a more manageable number of total students. “The middle schools feel very different this year, and for the better,” Quintanilla said.

Two teachers were added to each of the district’s four middle schools under the district’s 2012-13 budget as part of the agreement in May to change the schedule. The additions came after two consecutive years of cuts to staff.

The class sizes at elementary schools showed some improvements from last year since there are no longer classes pushing 40 students. However, there are now more classrooms with a range of 31-35 students, said Vicki Chambers, executive director of elementary programs. More than half of the nearly 200 elementary school classes exceeded 30 students. Ideally, Chambers said the district wants 25-27 students per class -- the norm until a a few years ago.

When administrators looked at staffing last spring, three half-time teachers were added to Scouters Mountain, Linwood and Oregon Trail elementaries to at least reduce the student to teacher ration for a portion of the day. Another was added to Sunnyside Elementary this fall after six classes -- half of them fifth grade and half second- and third-grade blended classes -- were shown to have 35 students.

Board members didn’t offer any immediate solutions to the ballooning class sizes -- except for finding a pot of gold, said board member Claxton. They did, however, offer thanks and support to the district’s teachers and staff.

“But thank you only works for so long,” said board chair Rein Vaga.

At Milwaukie High School, four teachers have loads of more than 220 students. One history and economics instructor had 233. That number is rivaled by an English teacher at Clackamas High School, who has 231 students.

“This is not sustainable -- these are people that are being taxed beyond what they can do,” Vaga said. “Changes must come in this state and we must come to a stable funding source.”

The discontent with class sizes among teachers, staff, parents, administrators and others involved with the district was also made clear Thursday in the results of a community survey that were presented to the board. Of the more than 2,000 people who responded, 60 percent said the biggest challenge the district is facing was large class sizes due to staff layoffs.